Nordicism Revisited

Author(s): A. James Gregor

Source: Phylon (1960-) , 4th Qtr., 1961, Vol. 22, No. 4 (4th Qtr., 1961), pp. 351-360
Published by: Clark Atlanta University

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/273538

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By A. JAMES GREGOR

Nordicism Revisited

IT HAS BEEN SAID of the Bourbons of France that neither in times

of prosperity nor adversity did they forget anything or le
thing. The same might well be said of the "Nordicists" of our t
if they have not forgotten anything, have certainly succeeded
learning anything.
Nordicism involves the belief that men of the "Nordic Race" -
tall, slender, fair-skinned, blond, blue-eyed, narrow-faced, narr
long-headed individuals - are qualitatively superior to the remainder
of mankind. They are the creators of civilization, and their passing
marks the passing of civilization.
Now the heyday of Nordicism is, of course, long since past. The im-
pression which Madison Grant1 and Lothrop Stoddard2 made upon
American thought has all but vanished.
Europe enjoyed a similar period of Nordicist literary ascendancy
and, of all the authors who devoted time and diligence to the "Nordic
Hypothesis," it was one Hans F. K. Guenther who led the most aggres-
sive "scientific" wing of the movement. During the interwar years
Germany, and subsequently Europe, were veritably inundated by books
and tracts from his pen.3
In 1927, to meet the quickened demand for Nordicist literature in
the Anglo-Saxon countries, Methuen published an English rendering of
the second German edition of Guenther's Rassenkunde Europas and
called it The Racial Elements of European History. By 1934 the name o
Hans F. K. Guenther had been inscribed in the pantheon of National
Socialist Science.4

While it is true that in the decade and a half of Nordicist ascenden

innumerable trenchant criticisms of their theses had been advanced,5
it could still be said that, given the state of anthropological, biological
1M. Grant, The Passing of the Great Race (New York, 1921), The Alien in Our Midst (New
York, 1930), The Conquest of a Continent (New York, 1931).
2 L. Stoddard, Revolt Against Civilization (New York, 1922), Racial Realities in Europe (New
York, 1925).
3 H. Guenther, Ritter. Tod und Teufel (Munich, 1920), Rassenkunde des deutschen Volkes
(Munich, 1923), Adel und Rasse (Munich, 1927), Rasse und Stil (Munich, 1927), Der Nordische
Gedanke unter den Deutschen (Munich, 1927), Rassenkunde Europas (Munich, 1929), Rassen-
geschichte des hellenischen und des roemischen Volkes (Munich, 1929).
4 Cf. Foreword to Rudolf, Nationalsozialismus und Rasse (Munich, 1934), pp. 13 ff.
5 F. Hertz, Rasse und Kultur (Leipzig, 1925); F. Hankins, The Racial Basis of Civilization: A
Critique of the Nordic Doctrine (New York, 1931).

351

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352 PHYLON

and social science of the period, a seemingly plausible defens

position could be conjured up.
Since that time a quarter of a century has passed; the world and
science have not stood still. But, apparently by dint of admirable self-
discipline, the Nordicists have succeeded in accomplishing what the
world could not. The Nordicists have stood still. They have neither for-
gotten nor learned anything.
In one of the more recent issues of a sometimes publication,
Northern World, there appeared an unsigned essay, of some length,
entitled "Nordic Civilizations of the Past."6
Northern World is but one of the publications, of recent vintage,
which has given itself over to the revival of Nordicism.7 In the United
States itself, because of prevailing racial tensions, there have been
some desultory attempts to resuscitate Nordicism.8 None have, how-
ever, pretended to "scientific" stature. Most have been frankly publicist.
Northern World has, on the other hand, announced itself a "non-poli-
cal," "cultural" enterprise, devoted to the dissemination of "scientific"
findings relative to the contribution of "Nordics" to the civilization of the
West.

It is interesting that, after these sober pronouncements, dissemblings

and protestations, Northern World should publish an article such as
"Nordic Civilizations." For the unsigned article reveals itself to be
nothing more, nothing less, than paraphrased excerpts from Hans F. K
Guenther's Racial Elements of European History (which itself was
translated from the second German edition of 1925), first published in
1927!

The article commences with material culled from the beginning of

Chapter VII, page 122, and ends with material found on approximately
page 190 of the Racial Elements. The footnotes referring to the pro-
fessional literature in the field are taken, without the least effort to
bring them up to date, from the 1927 Racial Elements. Even the exposi-
tory footnotes which dignify this article with the air of academic so-
briety are taken literally from the thirty-three year old text.9
As a consequence, the article repeats, without qualification, all the
fables with which Hans Guenther has regaled Nordicists from the
foundation of the cult.
Thus, according to this abbreviated version of the catechism, the
Hellenes, the Kelts and the Italici (Romans!?) are all classified as
"Nordics"10 despite the fact that all anthropological evidence indicates
6 Northern World, IV (Spring, 1960), 16-41.
7 C. G. Pile, The Five Races of Europe (London, 1949).
8 Cf. R. Hoskins, Our Nordic Race (Richmond, 1958); W. Stephenson (ed.), The Virginian
(Newport News, Virginia); C. Smith (ed.), Truth Seeker (New York). The two latter are
monthly publications.
9 Footnote 2 of the article is found on p. 123 of the Racial Elements, 15 on p. 140, 19, 20 on p.
157, 22 on p. 161, 28 on p. 177 and 30 on p. 188.
10 "Nordic Civilizations," p. 17.

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 NORDICISM REVISITED 353

that the Hellenes were a compost of ethnic strains," as were the

Kelts,12 and that the Italici were predominantly Alpine.13
This "Nordic" "vitalizing wave" swept southward and made the
Mediterranean "flourish"14 according to our text, which ignores the
fact that the non-Indogermanic Mediterranean boasted a civilization
and a culture of hoary antiquity while the Northern "vitalisors" re-
mained considerably retarded1s - a fact which Professor Keiter re-
marked upon with the comment: "The dynamic main stream of culture
proceeded from the South northward."16
As Professor Guenther's voice echoes and reechoes down the years,
it repeats the same nonsequiturs and evidences of ignorance which rang
in its first utterances.
Wherever even the most superficial evidences of depigmentation
(blondism) are discovered, a racial affinity with the "Nordics" is con-
jectured.17 Conveniently forgotten is the fact that incipient blondism
and sporadic instances of the trait have been found throughout the
world and can hardly be ascribed exclusively to Nordic genes.18
This kind of mischief is further compounded by philological abuses
of still greater magnitude. The Sanskrit word hari is translated, without
qualification, as "blond"19 - while as a matter of fact the word in the
Rig-Veda is used to denote yellow, red, crimson, bay, chestnut or even
green.20 Like the Latin flavi or the Greek xanthos, hari is a generalized
color term with a variety of alternate meanings. Xanthos, which our
shadow-Guenther translates, with equal certitude, as "blond" was used,
by the Greeks of antiquity, to designate "any hair color short of jet-
black, and the color was in all probability not lighter than auburn."21
When the Greeks came into contact with real blonds they were at a loss
as to how to describe them. Ultimately they employed the adjective
ordinarily used by them to describe the hair of old age.22 In fact,
there are many instances when the word can only be translated as
"beautiful" rather than with any specific color designation.23 At best
the word meant "blondish," "sandy" or "chestnut."24
Similarly, when Guenther cites the evidence of painted terra-cotta

1i J. Angel, "A Racial Analysis of the Ancient Greeks," American Journal of Physical An-
thropology, N. S. II, 329-76.
12 T. Powell, The Celts (New York, 1958), p. 67; C. Coon, The Races of Europe (New York,
1954), pp. 186 ff.
is Whatmough, The Foundations of Roman Italy (London, 1937), pp. 52 ff.; G. Sergi, The Medi-
terranean Race (London, 1901), pp. 176 ff.
14 "Nordic Civilizations," p. 18.
'5 I. Schwidetzky, Das Problem des Voelkertodes (Stuttgart, 1954), p. 33; A. Mosso, Le origine
della civilitd mediterranea (Milan, 1910), pp. 327, 331 ff., Escursioni nel Mediterraneo e gli
scavi di Creta (Milan, 1910), Chap. XIX.
16 F. Keiter, Rasse und Kultur: Eine Kulturbilanz der Menschenrassen als Weg zur Rassen-
seelenkunde (Stuttgart, 1940), III, 371.
17 "Nordic Civilizations," pp. 18-19.
18 Cf. A. Gregor, "The Logic of Race Classification," Genus, XIV, 6 ff,
19 "Nordic Civilizations," p. 22.
20 Cf. Rig-Veda-Sanhita, trans. H. Wilson (London, 1850), p. 16, n. a.
21 Wace, in Cambridge Ancient History, II, 22-23; similarly Keiter, op. cit., m, 357.
22 Diodorus, V, 32.
23 G. Sergi, Le prime e le piu antiche civiltd (Turin, 1926), p. 250.
24 G. Sergi, Mediterranean Race, p. 20; Coon, op. cit., p. 145.

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354 PHYLON

figures as support for his contention that the classical Greeks were
predominantly blond,25 he fails to mention that an equal number of
such renderings were brunet26 and, if anything, evidence for the fact
that the classical Greeks were a heterogeneous amalgam of ethnic
strains "with Mediterranean strains predominant."27
Nor is the picture, painted by the alter-Guenther, in which the
Greeks revealed themselves enamoured of "nordicity," in full accord
with the facts. The Guenther of the Northern World nowhere mentions
the Physiognomonica of the pseudo-Aristotle. The Nordicist is convinced
that the Greeks of antiquity admired the morphological traits of the
North European.28 Now the Physiognomonica is a contemporary text,
easily available, concerned with the Greek evaluation of the physical
characteristics of mankind. One would imagine the Nordicists, were
they interested in an objective evaluation of Hellenic sentiment, would
seek out its testimony. They are no doubt aware of its existence. But
we nowhere find reference to it.
The reason is not far to seek, for the pseudo-Aristotle finds little
to admire in "Nordic traits." It is not the fine, silken locks of the
North European which denote, to him, courage or virtue, but rather
the coarser tresses of the Mediterranean.29 Similarly, dark eyes are
the sign of good moral character30 - "grey or white31 eyes" connote
cowardice.32 Dark hair ("not very black") is an indication of natural
vitality.33 Too fair a complexion is indicative, to the pseudo-Aristotle,
of cowardice.34 A thin, pointed nose, which Guenther finds character-
istic of Nordics, indicates "irascibility, as in dogs.... "35
Aristotle, himself, did not find much to admire in the Northern
peoples whom he found full of spirit but "wanting in intelligence and
skill," having no political aptitude and incapable of ruling over others.36
But little dismayed, Guenther continues to add "fact" to "fact."
One such "fact" is Guenther's intuitive judgment that Greek statuary
gives evidence of the prevalence of "pure Nordic features"37 among
the Greeks. Needless to say Guenther does not report Professor Sergi's
equally authoritative judgment that Greek statuary does "not in the
slightest degree recall the features of a northern race. , ."38 Nor does
he take seriously the considered judgment of Professor Schuchhardt

25 "Nordic Civilizations," p. 29.

26 Coon, op. cit., pp. 145-46; Hertz, op. cit., p. 142.
27 Coon, op. cit., p. 145; G. Botsford and C. Robinson, Hellenic History (New York, 1956), p. 45.
By the time of Herodotus the Greeks clearly distinguished themselves from peoples of fair
hair and complexion. Cf. Herodotus, IV, 108, 109.
28 "Nordic Civilizations, pp. 28-29.
29 Aristotle, Physiognomonica, 806b 6.
30 Ibid., 807b 36.
31 Hertz suggests this is "light blue." Cf. Hertz, op. cit., p. 141.
32 Aristotle, Physiognomonica, 812b 3.
33 Ibid., 807b 19.
84 Ibid., 812a 13-15.
35 Ibid., 811a 31.
36 Aristotle, Politica, 1327b 23-27.
37 "Nordic Civilizations," p. 29.
38 Sergi, Mediterranean Race, p. 20.

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 NORDICISM REVISITED 355

(whom he otherwise cites with alarming frequency). Schuch

minded the Guenthers that "the indigenous population of th
ranean had, before the Indogermanic incursions, a cephalic s
similar to North Europeans, and one must not, therefore, as
case today, display the busts of antiquity and the heads of t
famous of the Greeks and declare them Nordic."39
Not content with this cavalier treatment of anthropology, philology
and archaeology, this revived Guenther proceeds to make light of his-
torical evidence. In the 1927 English edition of the Rassenkunde Europas,
of which the article we are now considering is an all but perfect reflec-
tion, Guenther was conscientious enough to put "Eyes: Dark (?)"
beneath the likeness of Julius Caesar40 - but by the time he per-
mitted his latest contribution to science to be published he had con-
vinced himself that Caesar had "light eyes."41 This is a fact most
singular in itself, since he cites no new evidence - but it is a fact made
still more worthy of note when we read in Suetonius' Lives of the
Caesars that Caesar had eyes "black and piercing."42
Having thus accounted for almost all the sociobiological sciences,
the author of our essay proceeds to dismember historical ethnology and
cultural anthropology. We are told that "there is nothing unclean about
life itself in any Nordic religion. .. . There is to be no shrinking from
life, merely good clean living . . . lewdness and perversions are sinful.
Here is industry, simplicity, love of truth and valor and righteousness
which is behind all Nordic beliefs... ,.43
What we are to make of statements such as these remains obscure.
We are not told if the Nordic worship of the horse's phallos, the s
orgies in which the Nordics disported themselves, their homosexua
practices (for which we have more than ample historical and archa
gical evidence44) are to be considered expressions of "good clean
living" or momentary departures into "lewdness and perversions." We
could only begin to evaluate Guenther's statements after we have his
definition of what constitutes "unclean," "lewd," and "perverse."
(An earlier contributor to our Nordicist journal had contended that
the Nordics had "brought a new humanizing influence to bear on the
fossilized cultures of the Mediterranean peoples."45 The peoples of the
Mediterranean, it seems, entertained human sacrifices. The Nordics, it
is contended, did not.
Now unless one refuses to classify non-Nordics as human it is diffi-
cult to see how one could absolve the "Nordic peoples" of addiction to
this inhuman practice when we know that the Cimbri, in 105 B. C., con-
39 C. Schuchhardt, AIteuropa (Berlin, 1941), p. 343.
40 Guenther, Racial Elements, p. 180, Figs. 224a, 224b.
41 "Nordic Civilizations," p. 38.
42 Suetonius, Lives of the Caesars, XLV.
43 "Nordic Civilizations," p. 25.
44 Cf. H. Shetelig and H. Falk, Scandinavian Archaelogy (Oxford, 1937), pp. 411, 413, 415, 420.
45 R. Kuttner, "The North European in Homeric Greece," Northern World, III, 14.

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 356 PHYLON

ducted a sacrificial slaughter of thousands of captured Romans.46 The

Germans entertained themselves with human sacrifices in 12 B. C. and
in 9 A. D. after the battle of Teutoburg.47 Before the engagement w
Drusus the Germans burned twenty centurions alive as a prelimina
sacrifice.48
As a matter of fact the custom of human sacrifice was prevalent
among the Danes and seems to have accompanied the cult of Thor and
Odin.49 Nor were the sacrificial victims aliens - there was a whole-
sale immolation of royal personages to Wotan.50)
As to the further evidence of the "good clean living" of these e
Nordics we find that Tacitus tells us that the Germanic children were
raised "naked and filthy,"5l in homes around which filth abounded,5
while Ibn Fadhlan (whose account of the Vikings is the earliest con-
temporary text describing their life) describes the Nordics53 as
"the dirtiest creatures of God. They have no shame in voiding their
bowels and bladder nor do they wash themselves when polluted by
emission of semen nor do they wash their hands after eating. They are,
then, like asses who have gone astray .... They may have intercourse
with their maiden while their comrades look on. At times a crowd of
them come together and do such things. ... As a matter of duty th
wash daily their faces and heads in a manner so dirty and so uncle
could possibly be imagined."54
We have, then, some slight indication of the accuracy of Nordic
accounts. If these most curious cerebrations are, as Guenther sugges
to afford us a "key to history,"55 it will be a key with which we
expect to open but precious few locks.

Nordicism has woven itself, inextricably, into the fabric of our t

Many of the excesses of National Socialism can be traced to its influ
It would be difficult to assign a specific place in the complex of id
that constituted Nazi racial theories to the notions of Hans F. K.
Guenther. What can be said without too much equivocation is that
Guenther was long favored by the Party56 and his conjectures were
uncritically incorporated into the early "theoretical catechisms" of the
movement.57
His ideas, however, had but little influence in the legislative enact-
ments of National Socialist Germany because of their fundamentally

46 Strabo VII, p. 293, as cited G. Schuette, Our Forefathers: The Gothonic Nations (Cambridge.
1929), I, 227.
47 Tacitus, Annals, I, 59-61.
48 W. Babington, The Fallacies of Race Theories (London, 1895), p. 175.
49 Schuette, op. cit., p. 233.
50 Ibid., p. 227.
51 Tacitus, GermanLa, 20.
52 Ibid., 16.
53 "They are tall as date palms, blond and ruddy..." Fadhlan, "The Vikings Abroad and at
Home," A Reader in General Anthropology (ed. C. Coon; New York, 1948), p. 411.
54 Ibid., pp. 411-12.
55 Guenther, Ritter, Tod und Teufel, p. 145.
5 Cf. A. Rosenberg, Kampf um die Macht (Munich, 1939), p. 348.
57 Cf. C. Rosten, Das ABC des Nationalsozialismus (1933), Chap. XVI.

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 NORDICISM REVISITED 357

impractical nature.58 In fact, by 1939, Guenther's highly

speculations were explicitly rejected by the Head of the Rassenpoli-
tischen Amtes of the NSDAP.59
Nonetheless, school instruction continued to be largely based on
Guenther's racial mythology60 although significant departures were
notable in their number and their tactical and theoretical importance.6'
In 1935 Guenther received the first National Socialist Gold Medal
for his "achievements" in science. But by 1943 Guenther apparently
cast off his more immediate Nazi connections and since the termination
of the Second World War he has been loud in his denunciation of
National Socialism.
It is thus difficult to assess Guenther's real influence in the deve
ment of Nazi theory and practice and for our purposes here it is n
important to do so. Our concerns here are with his speculations in t
selves.
Since the end of the war Guenther has quietly occupied himself with
an elaboration of his original thesis, formulated as early as 1920. Forty
years have brought no significant changes in his conjectures. In 1956
and 1957 he brought forth two successive books, Lebensgeschichte des
Hellenischen Volkes62 and Lebensgeschichte des Roemischen Volkes,6
which, although they hedge the unequivocal statements of the earlier
works with qualification, do not substantially alter the tenor, nature
of the evidence and the conclusions of his work. He pursues his "intui-
tive"6 methods with a vengeance born of the academic scorn and
neglect to which he has been subjected. He continues to find "Nordic
features" everywhere, in statues and graphic representations, in every
instance of physical attractiveness; he continues to find "Nordic spiritual
traits" in the chastity of women, in the pugnacity of men, in the
philosophic bent of mind, in inventiveness.
Although he finds, for example (in this book), Caesar to have been
cursed with pigmented hair and eyes,65 he discovers "Nordic spiritual
characteristics" in his steadfastness in battle, in his "Roman deport-
ment," in his tactical sense and his iron determination.
The complete absence of any empirical evidence that these traits are
exclusively associated with "Nordic man" does not hinder him in the
slightest in the development of his fancies. These are traits which he
"intuits" belong to the "Nordic man."
Thus "almost without exception the great philosophers of the West
58 Cf. G. Jacoby, Racial State (New York, 1944), pp. 78-79; cf. Reichsgesetzblatt, I, 815.
59 W. Gross, Der deutsche Rassengedanke und die Welt (Berlin, 1939).
60 Cf. particularly, J. von Leers, Rassische Geschichtsbetrachtung: Was muss der Lehrer davon
wissen? (Berlin, 1941).
61 Cf. C. Konrad, Der Rassengedanke in der Schule: Grundlagen, Stoffe und Wege fuer die
Praxis (Erfurt, 1936), pp. 48-49.
62 Paehl, 1956.
63 Paehl, 1957.
64 Cf. E. v. Eickstedt, Grundlagen der Rassenpsychologie (Stuttgart, 1936), p. 109.
65 Lebensgeschichte des Roemischen Volkes, p. 204.

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358 PHYLON

have been predominantly Nordic,"66 we are informed, irrespec

fact that the most Nordic of European lands, Norway and Swe
not succeeded in producing a single philosopher of distinction.67
In fact, what is true for philosophy is true for all achievements -
the principal cultures have never, to this day, had their center of gravity
in Scandinavia, the most "Nordic" of areas.68
If we are to generalize at all, the most productive peoples in history
have been those in which a variety of ethnic strains have intermingled.69
Similarly, individuals who have distinguished themselves in the cul-
tural history of the West have been singularly of mixed race.70
This is not to say that any conclusions concerning race-mixture can
be drawn from these considerations. There may be no biological impli-
cations that can be legitimately drawn from these facts. The rapid de-
velopment of a culture in these areas may be the result of a confluence
of cultural currents upon which ethnic intermixture is simply a con-
tingent and unimportant occurrence.
What these facts do suggest is that the notion that the "Nordic
Race," per se, is the sole possessor of culture-creating capacities is more
than suspect. The notion lacks the theoretical fruitfulness and the
empiric verification an hypothesis must possess if it is to pass muster
as a legitimate conjecture in theory building. The gratuitous intro-
duction of vague causes of error, speculative and subjective judgments,
a reliance upon incomplete data, summary neglect of disconfirming
evidence and alternate explanations, methodological poverty and an
inordinate disposition to simplification, earmark the "Nordic Hypothesis"
as a religious commitment rather than a sound theoretical premise.

Finally, Nordicism is essentially a philosophy of despair. The very

basis upon which the "system" rests precludes the possibility of serious
social or political action. When Guenther informs his followers that in a
"Nordic nation" such as Germany but 6 to 8 percent of the population
display the morphological traits of the "pure Nordic,"71 he condemns
the "movement" to the fate of an exclusive sect outside of which remain
over 90 percent of the population. Even in Sweden the "pure Nordics"
constitute, according to various estimates, but 12 to 18 percent of the
population. Try as they might, the Nordicists have never been able to
68 Guenther, Rasse und Stil, p. 45.
67 Ibid., p. 46, n. 2.
68 Cf. Guenther, Racial Elements, pp. 122 ff. "Die Hochkulturen haben ihren geistigen Schwer-
punkt bis heute nie in Skandinavien." E. Kretschmer, Geniale Menschen (Berlin, 1931), p. 90.
"Keine der grossen Kulturbewegungen, die in geschichtlicher Zeit den Erdteil durchzittert
haben, hat in Skandinavien oder Island ihren Ursprung gehabt." Keiter, op. cit., p. 371. Cf.
W. Ripley, The Races of Europe: A Sociologcal Study (London, 1899), p. 507.
69 Cf. C. Gini, Nascita, evoluzione e morte delle nazioni (Rome, 1930), pp. 73-74; J. Radzinski,
"The American Melting Pot: Its Meaning to Us," American Journal of Psychiatry, CXI, No.
10, 873-86.
70 "Many of the men who are universally regarded as the greatest in history (for instance,
Socrates, Michelangelo, Luther, Goethe, and Beethoven) were obviously of mixed race.
Speaking generally, it is exceptional to find that distinguished men exhibit a pure racial
type." E. Baur, E. Fischer, F. Lenz, Human Heredity (London, 1931), p. 692.
71 Guenther, Kleine Rassenkunde, p. 92.

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 NORDICISM REVISITED 359

convince the remaining majority of "bastards"72 that they should devote

themselves, with any kind of diligence, to the interests of the Nordic
Supermen.
Furthermore, the methodological principles to which the Nordicists
have committed themselves assure a regularly diminishing return for
their efforts. The greater exactitude with which they define their
"pure" Nordic condemns them to a correspondingly meager reward for
their trouble. As long as their "Nordics" were required to display only
blond hair, blue eyes and long crania, they could find a respectable
number of representatives in Europe and America. But with increased
specificity the number of acceptable specimens diminished. When nasal
index, facial index, the form and shape of the mouth and lips, the
prominence of the superorbital bosses, the texture and color of the
hair and skin, body form and carriage as well as a host of further
specifications were added, the instances of pure nordicity decreased
with alarming rapidity. The "race" was, in effect, qualified out of
existence.73
The pure race-bastardization thesis is a pre-Darwinian notion found
in the work of Gobineau.74 He conceived mankind to have been poly-
genetic in origin, God having created three distinct varieties of men: the
white, the yellow and the black. History is the record of their bastardi-
zation. In this inevitable bastardization Gobineau saw inevitable decline.
Guenther, and his Nordicists, remain transfixed, as it were, by this
pre-Darwinian tale of creation and fall. The Nordic race, once "pure,"
in quite the literal sense, underwent a gradual biological adulteration
(Entnordung).75 The consequence is a bastard population possessed of
a dual psychic heritage forever at fisticuffs with itself.76 No longer the
cool, self-possessed culture creators of the "pure" past, the remnants of
the Nordic race (and they are lamentably few)77 are lost in a sea of
physically and psychically hybrid peoples.78 Nor, according to this
doctrine, is it genetically possible to restore this lost virtue.
In a nation, a region, a continent, that has undergone protracted
intermixture, it is impossible to reconstitute lost racial purity. For even
if the "neo-aristocracy" practices systematic homogamy (blond, blue-
eyed, tall dolichocephals marrying none but blond, blue-eyed, tall
dolichocephals79), the peoples of Europe and America are so geneti-
cally bastardized, Guenther tells us, that even these "natural aristo-

72 "Die Rassenkunde ist in der misslichen Lage, den uberaus groessten Teil der Europaeischen
Menschen fuer Mischlinge, fuer Bastarde, erklaeren zu muessen." Guenther, Rassenkunde,
p. 15.
73 Cf. C. Kluckhohn, Mirror for Man (New York, 1957), p. 95.
74 Cf. A. Gobineau, Versuch ueber die Ungleichheit der Menschenracen (trans. Schemann;
Stuttgart, 1898), I, Chap. XVI.
75 Cf. Guenther, Racial ELements, Chap. I.
76 Guenther, Rassenkunde, p. 243.
77 Ib/d., p. 239-40.
78 Guenther, Racial Elements, p. 266.
79 Guenther, Nordische Gedanke, pp. 108-9.

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360 PHYLON

crats" could not predict, with any assurance, the physical appear-
ance of their offspring,80 much less their psychic traits.
Nordicist literature is, thus, heavy with a stark and oppressive pessi-
mism. As such it accords well with the spirit of our time. It offers a
certain succor to the dispossessed, the defeated, the casteless and dis-
organized quasi-intellectual class which mass education is manufactur-
ing.
But its peculiar characteristics charm only a limited faction - dissi-
dents who oppose any established opinion - creatures anti-social, who
wish to see the world composed of enemies81 - those too weak to
accept the responsibility of their own failure.
One thing has become quite clear - Nordicism has ceased to have
any influence in "serious" circles. If it could at one time number among
its adherents and fellow travellers men of such stature as Vacher de
Lapouge, Gustav Le Bon, Henry Fairfield Osborn and Professor R
way, the scientific pretensions of the cult have been so thoroughly
undermined that not a single reputable authority will take up cudgels,
today, in its behalf. This is most assuredly evidenced by the low quality
of the material that has, of late, collected around it.
In this rather pitiable state Nordicism will linger on until its few
adherents find a sheltered niche in Theosophy, food-faddism, Christian
Science or Psychoanalysis.
80 Guenther, Rassenkunde, p. 240; Nordische Gedanke, p. 110.
81 Nordicists have systematically opposed themselves to Jews, Christians, South Europeans,

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